Maureen Watt

Maureen Watt MSP
Convener of the Scottish Parliament Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 June 2011
Preceded by	Patrick Harvie (as Convenor of the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee)
Minister for Schools and Skills
In office 17 May 2007 – 10 February 2009
First Minister	Alex Salmond
Preceded by	Hugh Henry
Succeeded by	Keith Brown
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2011
Preceded by	Nicol Stephen
Majority	6,323
Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland
In office 19 April 2006 – 23 March 2011
Personal details
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish National Party

Maureen Watt is a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland since 2006.

Born in Aberdeen to a farming family, she was a secondary school teacher in Social Studies in England and moved back to Scotland to work in the oil sector.

She was sworn in as MSP on 19 April 2006 to replace Richard Lochhead who had resigned his seat to contest the Moray by-election. The next person on the SNP list from the 2003 election had been Alasdair Allan but he refused his place in Parliament as he had secured the SNP nomination for the Western Isles for the 2007 election. The next person on the list was Maureen Watt, who took up the place. She became the first MSP to swear their oath of allegiance in Doric.

Watt made her maiden speech on 20 April 2006 on the subject of Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation. With a gap of only 17 hours 25 minutes since taking the Parliamentary oath she took over the record for the shortest wait from John Scott.

She had previously been a Councillor on Grampian Regional Council and had served on the Visiting Committee of Aberdeen Prison.

After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, Watt was appointed as the Minister for Schools and Skills. She left office on 10 February 2009.

In May 2011, Watt was elected as SNP MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine on a 15.77% swing from the Liberal Democrats.

Family

Watt is the daughter of former SNP MP (1974–1979) Hamish Watt. She is married with two children.

External links

• http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/maureen_watt/index.htm
• http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/aspect/aspect2003/snp/a03snpabs.htm
• http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/doric.php
• http://heritage.scotsman.com/scotslanguage/Someone-to-spik-up-for.2769634.jp
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4920268.stm